The analysis focuses upon the social, cultural and economic determinants of age at first birth. Causal models will incorporate social origins, educational attainment, work experience, and use of contraceptives before the first birth. Eight Asian societies will be examined. The analysis plan is twofold: (1) prediction of age at first birth in a multivariate causal model, with variables ordered from a life-cycle perspective, and (2) prediction of the conditional probabilities of first birth for individual years of age. Because the timing of work, marriages and fertility are closely interwoven, the year-by-year analysis will allow for better understanding of causal ordering. The findings of this study will help to refine scientific understanding of the early stages of the fertility process at both the micro and societal levels. The proposed study will build upon an earlier National Science Foundation-funded study of age at first birth in Asia. The NSF study analyzes four KAP fertility surveys from Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Korea. Five additional data sets have since been obtained from the World Fertility Survey for Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. There is also an additional fertility survey from Malaysia. Finally, three demographic surveys, including the World Fertility Survey, will be obtained from the Philippines. In addition to the extension of the comparative analysis to additional Asian countries, the availability of multiple data sets for several countries will allow for the examination of trends in the initial stages of family formation. The WSF data sets used a common questionnaire. This strengthens the ability to do valid cross-national analysis.